State of the Nation

Americans are frightened and feeling insecure.

Around them, things which they cherish and on which they have relied, their homes and their jobs, are disappearing. They are uncertain about the future.

They are also more uncertain about the ability of their political, business, and social leaders to show them the path to the kind of security on which they had come to rely.

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Four days before Barack Obama was inaugurated 78% of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track. At the end of March that number had dropped to 57%, and the number who thought to the contrary – that it was going in the right direction – had jumped from 19% to 42%. [WP/ABC 3/09]

At this same time in 2001, as George Bush began his tenure, 32% thought the country was on the wrong track and 52% thought the country was going in the right direction. [NBC/WSJ 2/09]

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The public is evenly divided, 49%-48%, on whether it approves of the Federal Government’s response to the economic situation. This is an improvement from mid- December when 72% disapproved. [WP/ABC 3/09]

So far, the blame for the current economic situation is not falling on Obama. 84% said that Obama inherited the current economic situation and that he is not mostly responsible for it. [WSJ/NBC 2/09]

Here is who the public does blame when given 5 specific choices:

• Banks and other financial institutions 80%
• Large business corporations 80%
• Consumers 72%
• Bush Administration 70%
• Obama Administration for not doing enough to turn it around 26%

64% of the country is at least fairly confident that Obama's economic program will improve the economy. This is a slight drop from the 72% who had that view just before the inauguration. [WP/ABC 3/09]

There is considerable angst about the large bonuses paid to employees of companies who have accepted Federal funds, and the overall levels of compensation paid to top corporate executives. 80% are angry about the former and 74% about the latter. [WP/ABC 3/09]

83% believe that if a company is receiving assistance from the Federal Government, the Government should limit the amount executives can earn. [NYT/CBS 2/09]

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While 53% of us are more trusting of the U.S. government than U.S. businesses to solve the country's economic problems, within those numbers there is a dramatic break between the views of Republicans and Democrats.



69% of Republicans think the Federal Government has too much power, a view that is shared by only 32% of Democrats. [Gallup 3/09]

No wonder there is such an "air of cooperation" among Republicans and Democrats in the Congress.

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In a recent edition of his newsletter, Jack Martin, of Public Strategies, made a point that helps to explain why folks feel so strongly. Martin noted that over the last 20 years, there has been "a growing public view that our country is divided into two groups, the 'haves' and the have-nots." The number of folks who see themselves as have-nots has doubled from a quarter to a half of Americans.

Martin credited Pew Research for this information, so WW pulled the relevant data. Here it is.





Democrats (63%) are twice as likely as Republicans (33%) to think that America is divided into the "haves" and "have-nots".

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Over the last two years there has been a strong increase in the number of people who think race relations in this country are very/fairly good.



81% of Americans rate the economy as "very bad" (51%) or "fairly bad" (30%). Yet 72% believe that in America you can still start out poor and become rich. [NYT/CBS 4/09]

There has also been improvement in the number of people who say the economy is getting worse. 51% took that position in mid-February, and now 34% have that view. [NYT/CBS 4/09]

In mid-February 63% of us thought that the current recession would last at least 2 years. However, 77% were generally optimistic about the next 4 years with Obama as President. The same number are convinced that he is trying to bring about real change in Washington. [NYT/CBS 2/09]

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On the question of whether it is more important to increase spending or to avoid a big increase in the Federal deficit, there is a 49% to 47% split.

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The national unemployment rate of 8.5% as of April 4, 2009, is the highest rate of unemployment since November 1983.

The previous high point of the period occurred in 1982, when the rate hit 10.8% in November/December. The rate began to drop in early 1984, and continued downward to March 1989, when the rate bottomed at 5%. The next high point was June 1992, when the rate hit 7.8%. It then went downward through President Clinton's tenure, reaching a low of 3.8% in April 2000. The rate fluctuated in the 4% to 6% range during President G.W. Bush's two terms in office. It reached 7.2% during his last full month in office.

However, the unemployment rate may be misleading by understating the real rate of unemployment in the country. If you take into account the so-called marginally- attached workers and those who are involuntary part-time workers (either group making as much as they need to live), the current rate of unemployment stands at 15.6%.

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Many States exceed the national average in their unemployment rates. The following is a list of the 7 States that had unemployment rates in excess of 10% in February.

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In the 10-year period between 1999-2008, 27,210,000 jobs were created in the United States. Taking into account the total number of jobs lost during the same period, a net 7,600,000 additional jobs were created.

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As the country looks forward to hoped-for job growth over the next several years, the following chart may be of interest.





* Keep in mind that Presidents on this list served different lengths of time, e.g., Ford served for 29 months, while Clinton served 96 months.

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By 49% to 41% Americans opt to maintain the current healthcare system, based mostly on private health insurance, as opposed to a replacing it with a new Government- run healthcare system.

As recently as 2005, that spread was 31% points, 63% to 32%. [Gallup 12/08]

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29% of Americans deferred medical treatment in the 12-month period ending in November 2008 because of the amount they would have to pay for the care. In 2003, only 19% of Americans reported having to make that choice. The rate of deferral has been flat since 2006. Not surprisingly, the lower the annual family income, the higher the percentage of those having put off treatment. [Gallup 12/08]

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77% of Americans believe that the Government should increase financial support and incentives for producing energy from alternative sources, like wind and solar. 39% favor increased support of traditional energy sources ,like oil and gas. 33% favor increasing support for both/all sources of energy.

There seems to be an increased consciousness of the trade-offs between protecting the environment and developing further energy supplies.

In 2001, 52% of Americans said the priority should be protection of the environment, while 36% opted for developing further supplies. Today, there is equal support for both. 47% say protect the environment, while 46% say the priority should be developing supplies. [Gallup 3/09]

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Concerns about "water" top the list of environmental problems about which Americans worry a great deal. The top concern expressed by 59% of those interviewed is "pollution of drinking water." In 2nd place on the list, with each garnering 52%, are "pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs” and "contamination of soil and water by toxic waste." Last on the list is global warming.

The balance of the list is:

• Maintenance of the nation's supply of fresh water for household needs - 49%
• Air pollution - 45%
• Loss of tropical rain forests - 42%
• Extinction of plant and animal species - 37%
• Greenhouse effect or global warming - 34%

[Gallup 3/09]

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Notwithstanding the strongly voiced official position of the Catholic Church in opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, the same percentage of American Catholics as non-Catholics find abortion (40%) and stem-cell research (63%) morally acceptable.

However, the overall figures mask the impact of church attendance on folks’ opinions.

Among regular church attenders, only 24% of Catholics and 19% of non-Catholics find abortion morally acceptable. Embryonic stem-cell is found to be morally acceptable among 73% of non-church attending non-Catholics and 70% of non-church attending Catholics. [Gallup 2006-08 Values and Beliefs polls]

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There has been no change during the past year in the role that religion plays in Americans' lives, even though many Americans are going through particularly difficult times. 64% say that religion is important in their daily lives, and 42% report attending church every week or nearly every week. [Gallup 2/08-3/09]

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63% believe that the Republicans opposed the stimulus package for political reasons and not because they believed it was bad for the economy. [NYT/CBS 2/09]

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A majority of Americans (53%) don't like the North American Free Trade Agreement. 51% of Canadians applaud it. 57% of Mexicans don't have an opinion or are neutral. [Gallup 12/08]

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